I only use my Healer companion.

[sinnaman]

I agree with everything the OP said. Except... try playing a healing character. You will use your tank. But you'll never use DPS or healer pets on that one.

 

I used a DPS companion (Aric Jordan) all the way to 50 on my commando healer.

 

However any DPS/Tank class definitely only use healing comps when available or else they are taking twice as long to level.

[ikinai]

I agree with everything the OP said. Except... try playing a healing character. You will use your tank. But you'll never use DPS or healer pets on that one.

 

I would really, really like to be able to change every companion's role to whatever I want it to be. We could do this at one point in game test. I'm sure the software has changed a bunch since then, but please consider giving us this ability back!

 

I want to use Nadia instead of Qyzen or Tharan. I want to use Kira instead of Doc. I want to use Mission... er, Vette instead of that annoying piece of trash Quinn.

 

I want to pick my companion because i LIKE them, not because I NEED them!

 

Here here. I'd love to run around with T7 on one of my JKs because I like the little guy, but it just isn't efficient.

[YOmap]

Sin Deception here, I only use my healer. I've got him fully geared in fully Augmented Black Market gear so far. Wont use any other comps. Both tanks suck, dont care for range, I like to be the DPS, and HK-51 is too much work to get.

[Dawginole]

I'm just curious if the OP has his/her companions geared appropriately?

 

I haven't updated my tank just yet, but prior to 2.0 I had my tank in Rakata and he could tank the Black Hole H4 and anything similar just fine. The thing about a tank is that the tank isn't just a damage sponge forever. At some point they do need to be healed, just like a pc tank that would be in your party.

 

What about your dps? I have my HK-51 min/maxed in level 66 gear. I got jumped over the weekend by a 50 assassin and stood back and did nothing and my HK took out both the Assassin and his companion. HK crited the Assassin at one point for 9k dmg. I can usually just tear through daily areas with HK out and will only have to heal myself a few times because we kill so fast we never have time to take damage.

 

My suggestion is to know the role of your comps. If you're dps, leveling with a tank is silly. Your tank should be reserved for times when you're in group and missing a tank. Keep your healer and one dps really, really well geared and choose which is best in the given situation.

[Ryluk_Shouja]

I use my healing companion on my dps merc and power tech tank, my melee dps companion on my marauder for everything except heroics, my range tank or dps companion on my healing sorc, or my healer companion if I'm in dps stance. I use a melee dps on my Mara so all the mobs are close by for easy killing, and a ranged dps on my sorc so it's easier to avoid aoe. So I generally pick one or two companions that I use often per toon, but I use a little bit of everything across all my classes. I think they did a pretty good job of giving us a good selection of companions.

[ptwonline]

Yeah, I agree with OP and many people on this thread: I only use my healer companions unless *I* am the one with healing. In that case I usually swap to my tank companion. Even though the companion tanks are not nearly as good as player tanks, they are still likely to better survive an alpha strike.

 

I also agree that I wish our companions were not locked into their classes/roles. I would love to use different companions, but unless I'm slumming it on a low-level planet it's always the same companions. It takes a while and can cost quite a lot of money to gear up companions too, and so if you play a lot of alts you might not gear up more than one primary companion per character.

 

The problem is that unless you're well-overgeared for the content you are trying to do, you actually take a relatively high amount of damage and survivability becomes an issue. Even if you do always survive, then you have annoying downtime. Using a healer means you might kill things overall at the same speed or even more slowly (slow kill + no recovery vs fast kill + recovery time) but at least you're in action more instead of having the boring downtime.

 

It would be nice if Bioware cut down the number of companions but gave them more flexibility in roles. It would also mean less resources spent on adding all the dialogue for little-used companion, and you could even expand companion stories more easily as part of the class stories.

[AlaricSevGirl]

I used a DPS companion (Aric Jordan) all the way to 50 on my commando healer.

 

However any DPS/Tank class definitely only use healing comps when available or else they are taking twice as long to level.

 

My sorc healer is running with melee dps Ashara and I love it.

[Gwena]

I definitely see the OP's point. Though since I have played most of my characters as healers, I have not had this issue; I find that I can easily use pretty much any companion that I want to if I am a healer. Well, except the healing ones, normally. But just for kicks I'd pull out poor underused, undergeared Tharan on my healing Sage for boss fights sometimes and it was remarkably effective. xD

 

Looking at other classes and trying non-healing specs has proved much different in this though. Yes, I can use a DPS Companion on my Scoundrel when spec'd for DPS, and mobs go down so fast when doing dailies! But -- I think you can get away with a lot more if you use a healing companion. Your gear can be a little less good, you can hit the wrong ability occasionally, you can get yourself into a pickle, and you can take on a really challenging fight more easily. You have a higher margin of error. I'm currently working on a Juggernaut tank and with Quinn my character is well-nigh immortal and has virtually no down time. And since this is the first character I'm leveling as a DPS or tank, you can bet I've made some newbie mistakes and pulled things I didn't mean to!

 

So yes, I really wish that each Companion had at least two combat roles to choose from (and no, putting your tank/healer in DPS stance does not count). Having only one Companion that can heal is annoying, especially since we get two each of tanks and DPS. I really want to use Lord Scourge on a Jedi Knight but I know it would be much easier and smoother if I just glued Doc to my character's hip the moment I got him. Ugh. >.<

Edited May 29, 2013 by Gwena

[G-Seven]

How many cartel coins would you be willing to pay to unlock additional companion roles (i.e., heals, tank, dps)?

[Thundergulch]

How many cartel coins would you be willing to pay to unlock additional companion roles (i.e., heals, tank, dps)?

 

Zero!

[SweetsPatogga]

How many cartel coins would you be willing to pay to unlock additional companion roles (i.e., heals, tank, dps)?

 

SSSHHHHH!

 

Don't give them any ideas!

[G-Seven]

SSSHHHHH!

 

Don't give them any ideas!

 

Sadly, it's the only way to motivate them to add new content.

[OddballEasyEight]

I play as a Power Tech tank, and i only use Torian, my DPS companion.

Simply because i usually can take a heavy beating and i need him to take down the enemy faster (or handle adds)

 

In fact, for a very long time i only used Mako, but i was struggling. Then someone gave me the tip that if im a tank i should use a DPS companion.

Made everything a ton easier.

 

Basically, if you tank, you use a DPS companion (well geared).

If you are a healer, you should use a Tank simply because it is good at drawing aggro from you (and you should be able to keep him alive for the fight).

If you are a DPS, you should use a healer to keep you going while you take down the enemies.

 

Some things to think about here is to turn off AOE's on your DPS if you use CC's alot. Its really not that hard, and you might as well just leave the AOE's off permanently.

Another thing is to turn off all other skills on your healer when you are facing a hard opponent. This will make them concentrate more on healing you.

[CrazedWeevil]

I've played nearly all the classes / roles and I find that I do tend to favour the healer over others, but it does depend on the class and what I plan to do...

 

For my Sith Jugg running in Tank Mode I found I could use anyone as long as I made an effort to gear them up (the starting gear you get for companions is soooo bad!), favouring Jessa if I wanted to burn things quickly or Quinn if I just wanted to relax or solo a Heroic (though it is very slow just using a healer).

 

For my Sith Sorc / Jedi Sage in Heal Bot Mode I used their main melee tank nearly all the time, though I would use another companion when I first got them to get some affection with them (I like to gear them to the level you get them in orange gear and only update them if I plan to keep using them). The changes they made to Tank companions a long while back were painful (I got used to soloing Heroic 4's with Khem...it was a nice challenge and good way to learn a good rotation) but the Presence stat has given them massive Hit Point pools now, but they are still very fragile if you don't keep up with the heals (and it very slow relying on a Tank companion to kill things).

 

On my Sniper in Insane DPS Mode I've found I can use anyone as I can kill just about anything very quickly. Tank is useful here to hold the bad guys while I kill them one at a time and I find I don't need to worry to much about the Tank dying since I can kill so quick.

 

Like others have said it would be nice to be able to use which ever companion we wish and just switch modes on them, but from a story / background point of view it wouldn't make a lot of sense for some of them. I wouldn't mind having a dual spec'ing system for players though so I can switch modes depending on which companion I want to use, like say Tank Mode to use a DPS / Healer companion or Healer / DPS Mode to use a Tank companion say...

[JimG]

While you can certainly get through solo content with the other types of companions, I find myself usually gravitating towards my healer companions (unless I'm playing a healer) just because it's so much more convenient and time-consuming. I don't have to constantly stop to heal them up between every mob and I usually don't even have to heal myself between mobs as they do it for me as we're moving onto the next one. Giving the tank and dps companions a little HP and/or survivability boost would help. It would also be good if we could use medpacs on the companions instead of just ourselves (like you could with KOTOR). Speeding up out of combat healing would help too....although, I typically just dismiss and re-summon them if they are under about 60% health as it's just faster.

[PaniMauser]

Tastes differ, OP.

 

I, for example, never use healing companions, because their healing is plain bad, even if they are geared. They cannot overheal *oh ***** situations, and any other situations you can survive without a healer if you know what you are doing. You'll just have a little less health in the end if you are not using heal comp, that's all.

 

Their AI is stupid. They will spam ALL of their healing abilities on the slightest scratch you get, so by the time you could actually use a heal, they have all their abilities on cooldown and will pew-pew at mobs, not really doing any significant damage in the process too.

 

Their cc requires manual management, just like dps/tank companions aoe,since they cannot understand boss immunity and if you forget to turn it off, you all alone in your fight since those turd for brains will try to cc what cannot be ccs and their cc is channeled, so they are out of the fight for a good minute. So I do not really understand why you can deal with that on heals. but cannot deal with exactly the same mechanic on dps/tank comps.

 

If only you could program your companions' behaviour similar to, say, Dragon Age games, making them plainly not heal you until you drop below 75%, being able recognize boss immunity etc, they could be useful companions. But even then, why would you want to slow down your progress by using their weaker dps? Two-three seconds recuperating after the fight is still faster than killing a big pack with this sore excuse for companion pew-pewing at them.

 

l always use dps companions since when they are well-geared, they kill mobs so fast, you do not need any healing, beyond maybe Heroic Moment on some bosses in Heroics. And you can share incoming damage with them by sending them in first and taking off aggro from them later. Sometimes I put up with tank comps because I like the character too much (Forex and Scourge, and sometimes Pierce, but I'm really torn here, since I love Vette's personality as well), but other than that, give me a dps comp at any time.

 

So grateful you can unlock HK-51 at lvl 1 and never deal with tanks or Mako again. Mako is a sweet girl, but too low dps, and heals are just not good enough to cover for it. Now if only gearing HK up was as easy as non-droid comps....

Edited May 29, 2013 by PaniMauser

[JaTrigger]

I recently rolled a Scoundrel to 55, and pretty much used my companions as they came; I find that Corso's good but difficult to gear, Bowdaar's good, but, as the thread-starter said, he's pretty likely to screw up your AOEs thereby potentially pulling another pack of elites, which sucks. When I got Risha, I got so caught-up with my story and the awesomeness of her being Nok Drayen's daughter, although I predicted that was the "upcoming plot twist" that people in XS Freighter General Chat told me about, and so I used her for ages. Now, Caveh/Cavy, who until recently was the bigshot Scoundrel on Begeren Colony, moving to Harbinger a few weeks ago, told me that Akaavi was one of the better Scoundrel companions. Tbh, I found her repulsive, and so while I'm maxing affection with Guss and Risha, she's sitting in her cabin, looking all bad-*** and, more generally, just like an ***. So when I got to Hoth I was well aware of Guss's coming, and I was looking forward to it. In fact, I was so looking forward to it that me and Risha did all of the class missions before anything else, meaning that I was awfully underleveled, but happy. From what I've heard, and this is either total BS or something to do with programming, Guss is the best healer companion, Elara the second best, then Lokin, then Doc, then Malavai, then Cedrax, then Mako, then Talos at dead-last. Guss has served me extremely well, but he's now undergeared so much that I doled out over 100k and a lot of time into doing the HK quest, which I recently completed.

 

So now it's a toss-up between HK and Guss, because, as I am sure someone else has said, HK can out-dps a lot of actual players. He generates roughly the same amount of threat as I do, so we basically just split the enemies in half and he kills his and I kill mine, and this works perfectly almost always. I do tend to end fights on lower health than when I was rolling Gusstopher, but I have yet to die with HK as my active companion in a fair situation (i.e. no pulled elites). Also, I mostly play with a healer Commando for dailies in endgame, so to have a full group he calls Tanno Vik, who imo is less liable to break CCs than Bowdaar, who can get a little carried away, and I'll bring in HK, who is undeniably the best DPS companion in the game.

 

 

My 2 cents, hope it helps.

[jkuhl]

Taking a non-healer really isn't an issue if you keep him geared.

 

As to DPS breaking CCs, outside of H2 and H4, I don't CC so I don't worry about it. If the comp is geared, you and he will take mobs down before taking significant damage.

[DataBeaver]

My gunslinger has been adventuring with Risha and Akaavi for a while, because a DPS character with a DPS companion melts enemies at an awesome speed. Depending on the enemies, I can kill several packs before having to rest, and even then I rarely need to spend the full duration. The heroic 2 on Oricon requires Guss though, particularly the commanders. I should get the 1000 kills achievement for Bowdaar, and Corso really ought to see more action, being my husband and all.

 

My shadow tank has had Tharan by her side a lot, though Nadia has also seen plenty of action. Recently I also geared up Zenith. Qyzen has been neglected since the early levels, and Iresso is still waiting his turn. Tank companion on a tank character just doesn't work out so well. I'll eventually gear then as DPS and give them enough time for the 1000 kills achievement at least.

 

My sorc healer has used all companions except Talos at one point or another. Ashara and later Xalek have gotten somewhat more attention, being her apprentices. A self-imposed limit on not getting help from my other characters has hindered gearing multiple companions up, so at the moment Xalek is a lot better geared than the others. Healer character with tank companion also works really well.

 

My sentinel has used Kira almost exclusively ever since getting her. Doc has been called out for some tight spots, and Scourge got to join me for Belsavis because it fit the storyline. Currently I'm doing Voss with Doc to get to know him better, and I'm planning on taking Rusk to Corellia for similar reasons. The situation here is quite similar to the gunslinger; two DPS kill stuff faster than one. Sentinel seems to be more squishy though, but it may be that I just haven't learned to use all the defensive cooldowns well enough yet.

 

The rest of my characters are either too low level to contribute, or in one case adventuring with a group of friends and thus can't really express an opinion of companions.

 

TL;RD: I use all types of companions on different characters, and sometimes switch to another companion just for the hell of it. They are all viable for solo content, but heroics have stricter requirements when going solo.

[AlexDougherty]

I'm probably forgetting some merits. Basically, my Healer companion is so versatile — and healing in this game is so powerful — that they magnify my effectiveness significantly. Tank and DPS companions feel like a sad puppy following you around barking at things, then getting kicked across the yard. Heal companions feel like entering a cheat code that just makes your character live longer, jump higher, run faster, and win the game.

 

Try playing the Agent story, it forces you to learn how to play without a healer (unless you have HK or Treek), this teaches you what they are fun for, and you can use them more, which is good if you happen to hate the healer for a class (have done).

 

Don't mistake this for a "you have to use other companions" post, the healer comps are great, but you become more adaptable if you can play without them.

[Mowermanx]

Try playing the Agent story, it forces you to learn how to play without a healer (unless you have HK or Treek), this teaches you what they are fun for, and you can use them more, which is good if you happen to hate the healer for a class (have done).

 

Don't mistake this for a "you have to use other companions" post, the healer comps are great, but you become more adaptable if you can play without them.

 

Hey, maybe that explains why there seems to a lot less derpy agents anound than any other class?

[Englefield]

snip

 

JaTrigger, I think you need to place your entire post inside a huge spoiler alert

[DarthTHC]

JaTrigger, I think you need to place your entire post inside a huge spoiler alert

 

He necro'd the thread from May of last year.

[Rafaman]

Heh. I didn't realize that some people were just using heals and that is all. I mean, it depends on the fights and area to some extent, but I find my preference on companion varies and mostly by class.

 

On my tank I take my best dps. Unless I'm soloing a Champ or the equivalent then I take heals.

On my DPS, on my Sent I take my heals, on my Slinger I take a tank. So Melee dps do better with heals and ranged do better with a tank generally speaking.

On my heals I take a tank. I'm fairly consistent on that for obvious reasons.

 

So... just to add to the necro... I think it depends but I certainly don't feel constrained to use a particular companion if they are all equally geared. And I certainly do not stick just with heals.

[Spamfritter]

I rarely ever used a healing companion on any of my characters. Admittedly all I have are DPS and tank characters. On my tanks I used DPS because the DPS output of a properly geared tank isn't all that great. At lower levels there isn't much difference but in the higher levels (post 40) there is a difference. On my DPS characters I can kill crap with a DPS companion fast enough to not need much if anything in the way of heals.

 

The reality is that you probably save as much overall time with a properly geared and setup DPS companion as you do with a healer. A good DPS companion gets the mobs down faster while a healer allows you to stop and heal far less frequently. It just depends on your play style. I rarely if ever touched my healing companions on most of my characters. I can often go a trash pull or two in between heals anyway. I guess it depends on your preference, but I'm going to disagree with the OP's analysis on DPS and tank companions. On my squishy *** Sorc Khem Val works great. Then again I've geared him well at every stage. I find him effective enough at keeping enemies off me to be useful. If he starts to die I can off heal / bubble him and keep going. Broonmark on my Marauder is fine because I only need a few seconds of him keeping some elite or Champion enemy off me to make the kill. And he does that just fine.

 

I've got two or three nicely geared companions on most of my toons and they can all be viable when used right.